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This Google Custom Search looks only in this website. A Kiddush Hashem to end an Ugly Campaign
The chareidi parties UTJ and Shas gained significant voters compared to the elections five months earlier. Shas had 330,199 votes and UTJ had 268,775 votes, meaning that 598,974 voters stood up and declared that they are in the unambiguous camp of the Ribono Shel Olom.
The campaign revolved almost exclusively on a choice for or against Hashem and the Torah. Although not visible in the chareidi neighborhoods, the rest of the country was covered with signs against Halochoh and against the religious community.
The Prophet Isaiah may have created an 8th century BCE seal impression discovered in First Temple remains near the Har Habayis last year, according to Hebrew University archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar.
"We appear to have discovered a seal impression, which may have belonged to the prophet Isaiah, in a scientific, archaeological excavation," said Mazar last year, soon after the discovery was made.
When Rosh Hashonoh arrives, a person with a minimum of good deeds to his credit should be anxious all the more before his coming judgment. But in actuality, it doesn't work that way. In most of the prayers we ask Hashem to act mercifully towards us. "If you execute the true extent of the judgment, who will emerge righteous therein?" Without mercy and kindness, who can expect to stand before Hashem in judgment?
This teaches us, says the Ayeles Hashachar HaRav Shteinman zt"l, that the advice to emerge righteous in our judgment is a twofold intertwined counsel.
In an interview in last week's Musaf Shabbos Kodesh, HaRav Dov Lando, rosh yeshiva of Slobodka Yeshiva, said:
Know that in outlook, we are more extreme than the Neturei Karta! As far as we are concerned, the State does not even exist. How are we supposed to conduct ourselves regarding all the challenges which it presents before us? This is a different story. We follow the guidelines of the Chazon Ish, but theoretically we do not recognize the government at all. [In practice we interact with the institutions of government, but we do not recognize them as having any special meaning.]
This article was originally published by Yated Ne'eman in 1991/5751. It describes the basic principles and guidelines for doing teshuvoh.
"Return, O Israel, unto HaShem your G-d, for you have failed in your iniquity." Man deviates from the path of righteousness because of the impression that his perverted ways will lead him to success, to joy, happiness and peace of mind. That is why the prophet Hoshea calls upon Israel to realise that the way of sin does not lead to success, but to failure. If man were to reflect upon this, he would realize that his sinful life has led only to failure and this realization would itself spur him to repentance.
From Our Archives
by Mordecai Plaut
What does a new year mean to most of the people in the world? "Celebrating" with eating and drinking and wild abandon. Have a blast in honor of the new year.
Needless to say, for the Jewish people a new year is an entirely different experience. Though it is a yom tov and we mark it also with a festive meal, yet it is also an awesome day of judgment, in which all creation is evaluated and the fate of the world as a whole and all its individual parts is decided. At the same time, we focus on praying that Hashem's kingship of the world become evident to the whole world, accepting His rule upon ourselves and praying that its truth will overwhelm the rest of the world as well.
HaRav Yisroel of Salant zt"l said, "How great is the mercy that HaKodosh Boruch Hu shows His creation! If we had only experienced Yom Kippur once in seventy years, if we had only received repentance and forgiveness for our sins and wrongdoings at these rare occasions -- even then we would have had cause for unbelievable joy and happiness! It would have been a time of tremendous gratitude for the special chessed that we experience from the One who is All Merciful and Forgiving.
However, since we are blessed to encounter Yom Kippur every year we should be overflowing with feelings of joy and elation because of this chessed! Once a year Hashem has bestowed on us a day of forgiveness an This, of course, is merely a ploy of the yetzer to keep the person from doing teshuva, and hopefully most of us do not harbor such overconfidence.
by Rav Dov Eliach
Yomim Noraim
"Somar . . . mipachdecho . . . besori . . ." thundered the voice in the hall of the Volozhin Bais Medrash. "Umimishpotecha yoreisi!" A pall of dread descended upon the listeners . . .
"My flesh shuddered with dread for You . . . (Tehillim 119:120).´Thus Reb Chaim Volozhiner began his drosho, as goose-bumps appeared on his listeners' arms, and spines tingled in fear. Trembling took hold of the talmidim; behold, the Day of Judgment has arrived!
That drosho Reb Chaim delivered on the first day of Selichos, Elul, 1812, plumbed the depths of his listeners' hearts, yet elevated them to great heights. Inspiration gushed forth from his wellspring of purity, conquering the hearts of the bnei Torah, and shaking the souls of the Volozhin townspeople to the core. Geonim, talmidei chachomim, and laymen, young and old, all those who entered the Beis Medrash left, filled with his'orerus. So testified his son, Reb Itzele Volozhiner.
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